The Gerry Lopez Big Wave Challenge At Mt. Bachelor

With offshore winds and heavy swell, The Gerry Lopez Big Wave Challenge rolled through Mt. Bachelor, Oregon this past weekend bringing a wave of style to the mountain. Now in its second year, The Big Wave Challenge offers a unique opportunity to show your style and flow through a course made up of berms, hips, jumps, cradles, and waves.

The sun was shining and the weather was sweet for this year’s event. With an amazing turnout of Hawaiian themed costumes, it was hard to grasp that you were in the mountains of Oregon. With a heavy group of notable standouts, judges like Austin Smith had a field day trying to narrow down a solid top three.

Allister Schultz always comes out swinging, riding hard and choosing new innovative lines around the course. Josh Dirksen, who undoubtedly has one of the best turns in snowboarding, is always a favorite to watch with his steady flow and style. Local powder hound Forest Devore can usually be seen demolishing wind lips through the heavy months of winter, but is quite the well-versed rider with big pop and solid fluidity through the course. Desiree Melancon, Jess Kimura, and Ashley Thornton all had solid runs and even showed some of the dudes up with their bags of trickery.

This is surely an event never to forget for the coming years. For the most part, everyone was just out having fun, cruising with friends and enjoying the obscene amount of snow that Mt. Bachelor still has to offer. A huge thanks to Gerry, all the sponsors, and Mt. Bachelor for bringing friends and family together for an event unlike any other.